Hi everyone. Join Legend3D founder and chief technical officer Barry Sandrew for a live chat about the art, science and business of 3D, starting at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time today, Friday, April 29. Your questions and comments welcome.

Legend3D is hard at work on a number of library title conversions, some of which he may even be able to talk about. We’ll see at 10.

10:00

David S. Cohen:

Hi everybody and welcome to Variety. com. My name is David Cohen, I cover technology for Variety, and as many of you know I’ve become the resident 3D maven.

10:00

David S. Cohen:

Today I’m excited to have as our guest one of the really smart guys in the 3D business, Barry Sandrew of Legend3D.

10:00

Barry Sandrew, Ph. D.

10:01

David S. Cohen:

Hi Barry, and welcome.

10:01

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

Hi David – Happy to be here.

10:01

David S. Cohen:

Barry, your background is originally in neuroscience and other very technical fields. How did you transition to working on stereoscopic cinema?

10:02

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

Well – I have my doctorate in Neuroscience. I was on staff at Harvard and Mass General back in the 80’s

10:02

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

I was approached by some entrepreneurs who wanted to colorize feature films.

10:03

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

because if you colorize a feature film it’s eleigible for a 95 year copyright

10:03

David S. Cohen:

Ah-HA!!

10:03

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

to make a long short… they apprached me because of my medical imaging expertise

10:03

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

I started American Film Technologies in 86′

10:04

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

after inventing the first all digital colorization process

10:04

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

did all Ted Turners work and work for thye major studios

10:04

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

In 2000 I reinvented colorization

10:05

David S. Cohen:

Now, does that same 95-year copyright rule apply to a movie that’s been converted from 2D to 3D?

10:05

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

The technology had advanced so much that I was able to make coloriztion photo real

10:05

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

I would imagine so but not been tested. The reason for the 95 year copyright is because of the creative input. A Derivitive work

10:06

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

5 years ago my good friend and colleague, Greg Passmore and I got together and examined the state of 3D at that time

10:06

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

we knew what Cameraon was up to with Avitar and we knew it was going to be a game changer

10:07

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

We saw the latest in 3D ready HDTV and we were blown away

10:07

David S. Cohen:

Interesting that 3D TV was part of your thinking even then.

10:07

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

we knew basically how to convert a film from 2D to 3D and Greg had been experimenting.

10:08

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

We then realized that colorization – the process of colorization is about 65% of the process of converting 2D to 3D.

10:08

David S. Cohen:

I can tell you that there’s a long history of thinking about putting library titles into 3D — or something similar. When 3D was booming in the 50s there was talk (covered in Variety) of using some sort of depth process on library titles.

10:09

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

We then devoted 80% of our R&D budget to making what we expected to be the most advanced process for conversion and I believe we succeeded based on the comments from all of our Hollywood clients.

10:09

David S. Cohen:

Barry, what do you think the business is getting right about 3D and what is it getting wrong?

10:09

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

Yes I know – glad no one wasted time on it back then.

10:09

David S. Cohen:

I don’t think that 50s process was a stereoscopic conversion, exactly.

10:10

David S. Cohen:

But they did seem to have something in mind.

10:10

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

Geshwin invented the original process in the 70’s

10:10

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

those patents have expired. It was the very basics.

10:11

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

I think Avitar woke everyone up and the following year was one of growing pains and exploration. I believe things are shaking out now.

10:11

David S. Cohen:

Creatively, what do you see that seems promising and exciting?

10:12

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

I can only speak for Legend3D… we have 6 films in progress currently. Two of them are huge feature films. We spent the past year doing special software development just to take on these two titles. The results will be a bar settter!

10:13

David S. Cohen:

Can you name any of those titles?

10:13

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

You know I wish I could but the studios are very clear about NDAs

10:13

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

We delivered the Conan Trailer to Lionsgate on Monday. It’s 120 shots, 2.5 min and we completed it – all in – in just 10 days. The client thought it was awesome and so do we. I’ll put money on the fact that no other conversion company could accomplish that without compromising quality. It’s going to be screened in front of Thor.

10:14

David S. Cohen:

What are your clients asking you for, generally?

10:14

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

That I can tell you. Conan is not however one of the two.

10:14

David S. Cohen:

Are they looking for off-the-screen gags, immersive depth…?

10:14

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

highest quality and speed…

10:14

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

Oh –

10:15

David S. Cohen:

What does “quality” mean in 3D nowadays?

10:15

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

No – the work is more sophisticated than that… gags are not part of the process we’ve been dealing with for the most part.

10:15

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

Quality = looking as good or superior to captured 3D. We’ve achieved that and it will become clear after these films are released.

10:16

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

Bold claim huh David?

10:16

David S. Cohen:

Yes.

10:16

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

Would not say that to you unless I felt confident.

10:16

David S. Cohen:

But we’ll have to see the pictures, right?

10:17

David S. Cohen:

When are you allowed to reveal you worked on a title?

10:17

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

You definitely will

10:17

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

When they are released

10:17

David S. Cohen:

Do you generally do a whole title, or part of a title?

10:18

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

The industry is trying to mitigate risk after what happened with Clash and Potter. They bring in as many as 7+ converison companies on a project but the most of the time there are 2.

10:18

David S. Cohen:

I know Warner was just down there having a look at what you’re doing.

10:18

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

We prefer to do a whole title… there are less than a handful that can do a whole title today.

10:19

David S. Cohen:

Are you seeing attitudes toward 3D changing over time, both from clients and from audiences?

10:19

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

Somewhat but I think there will be a lot of evangelists coming out publically later this year.

10:20

David S. Cohen:

Have you seen “Cave of Forgotten Dreams?”

10:20

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

I’m hoping audiences will become more discerning this year as well.

10:20

David S. Cohen:

Even Roger Ebert admitted to seeing the value of 3D on that picture.

10:20

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

no way! Ebert liked it?

10:20

David S. Cohen:

I’m hoping to go this afternoon or this evening.

10:21

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

I’ve heard about it… not seen it.

10:21

David S. Cohen:

Well, Mr. Ebert is a Werner Herzog acolyte (not that I blame him) and if Mr. Herzog chose 3D, Mr. Ebert would be inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.

10:21

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

By the way – Greg Passmore has done some great documentaries about caves all over the world. Pretty amazing stuff. He makes his own rigs.

10:22

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

I see. He never was a fan of my work

10:22

David S. Cohen:

What are the biggest challenges today in converting a library title to 3D?

10:22

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

I think colorization bothered him a little

10:22

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

Time, Time and Time

10:23

David S. Cohen:

How much time is enough for a full feature film of say, 115 minutes.

10:23

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

Also, the studios should consider putting into their budgets – getting assets from the FVX studios.

10:23

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

We did all three Shreks in 6 months… 2 months per film.

10:24

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

VFX studios… sorry

10:24

David S. Cohen:

We know how fussy the DWA people are about 3D, so that’s a compliment. Did you work with Phil “Captain 3D” McNally closely on that?

10:24

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

We often have to convert very complex VFX without assets because it is simply too costly to go back and dearchive, etc.

10:25

David S. Cohen:

Interesting. So you have to treat the plate as if it was all captured live?

10:25

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

Phil was fantastic! We learned so much from him.

10:25

David S. Cohen:

Such as?

10:26

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

But also Wendy Rogers and Nancy Bernstein who were the producer and creative on the shows. They all held our feet to the fire on those films and it was a great experience.

10:27

David S. Cohen:

I think the whole industry is still figuring out this 3D thing. Where do you feel there’s the most yet to be learned?

10:27

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

Also Corey Turner on Alice – also held our feet to the fire. We have been fortunate to have some very demanding clients. Other conversionc companies have dealt with more softball projects and they don’t know the quality expectations.

10:28

David S. Cohen:

Again, where do you feel the learning curve is headed? Where’s this 3D thing going, creatively and technically?

10:28

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

I think things will simmer down and features will be approached for conversion from pre-production. That will be when the field will get consolidated and the fly by night conversion companies (and they are coming out of the woodwork) will disappear.

10:29

David S. Cohen:

We’re almost out of time. For people who are watching live or who will read this chat later, what would you like people to take away from our conversation?

10:29

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

Unlike others, I feel that camera technology will progress but there’s just so far you can go with that. Conversion on the other hand will continue to evolve

10:30

David S. Cohen:

Do you see movies coming to a blend of the two techniques?

10:30

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

Save your criticism of conversion until the Fall!

10:30

David S. Cohen:

We’ll look forward to seeing those movies, Barry.

10:31

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

It alreay is David – we have been working on a film that is checker boarded and you can’t tell the diff

10:31

David S. Cohen:

That’s all the time we have for today. I want to thank our guest, Barry Sandrew of Legend3D. We’ll look forward to seeing… well, seeing your movies, whatever they turn out to be.

10:31

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

The director has mistaken his capture and our conversion. Nice!

10:31

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.:

Thank you David

10:31

David S. Cohen:

Thanks to everyone in our live audience for tuning in.

10:32

David S. Cohen:

I’ll be off next week. (Actually, I’ll be at the FMX visual effects and animation conference in Stuttgart.) So no live-chat next Friday.

10:32

David S. Cohen:

We’ll be back live on May 13 at the usual time with another tech chat.

10:32

David S. Cohen:

And one more thing:

10:33

David S. Cohen:

We’re starting a new feature: “Ask Variety.”

10:33

David S. Cohen:

Send your questions about show business to me with #AskVariety in the subject line, or tweet them to me with the #AskVariety hashtag.

DDD , the US-based 3D consumer technology licensing group, confirmed this morning that a licensing agreement signed earlier in April with an unnamed PC chip manufacturer is actually industry giant Intel Corp. The agreement is to bundle DDD’s TriDef 3D PC conversion software products with Intel’s new 2nd Generation Intel Core processor PC platforms. Combining the two technologies allows a broad range of popular PC games to be enjoyed by consumers without the need for additional graphics devices in their PC. The DDD share price rose by 3p to 39p on the news.

The two-year license agreement allows Intel to supply DDD’s TriDef 3D Experience software with its own 3D PC processors directly to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and also in retail 3D accessory packs. DDD will receive quarterly royalties from Intel based on the volume of OEM and retail software products shipped. It is expected that OEMs will begin shipping the combined solution during the second half of 2011.

Chris Yewdall, the chief executive of DDD, said: “The partnership with Intel is the culmination of many months of close collaboration with Intel’s PC Client Group team and is a major milestone for DDD. Intel’s selection of TriDef to enable significant aspects of their 3D product offering underscores the recent progress we have made in delivering a market-leading 3D content solution for the PC market.”

The agreement also includes a development contract valued at approximately £93,000 related to the initial customisation of the TriDef PC software for Intel’s new Core processors. Approximately £62,000 of this was recognised in 2010 as DDD completed the initial work in preparation for demonstrations at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in January this year.

Based on Intel’s new 32nm microarchitecture, the new 2nd Generation Intel Core processors offer new levels of performance through optimised Intel Turbo Boost Technology and Intel Hyper-Threading Technology, as well as significant advances in visual and 3D graphics capabilities through processor graphics. These advances deliver new capabilities, and the performance with 2nd Generation Intel Core processors allows a broad range of popular PC games to be enjoyed by consumers without the need for additional graphics devices in their PC.

Intel and DDD plan to promote the TriDef stereoscopic 3D game engine to game developers for both current and future games. They are also planning to integrate the TriDef stereoscopic 3D software more closely with the media functions of the 2nd Generation Intel Core processors to facilitate access to DDD’s 2D to 3D conversion by third party software developers. Intel is also planning to offer a selection of original 3D movie trailers drawn from the growing library of high definition 3D movies available on DDD’s Yabazam! website, rounding out their comprehensive 3D offering for OEMs and end users alike. In addition, the companies plan to explore opportunities for the use of DDD’s 2D to 3D conversion with Intel’s other processor families.

Verizon Joins the Executive Board of the Entertainment Technology Center at USC

Verizon Enterprise Solutions will lend its technology expertise to the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California (ETC@USC) through a seat on ETC@USC’s executive board. Verizon’s global cloud, IP and wireless networks, managed security services, end-to-end digital content solutions and technology-related professional services are used by media and entertainment companies to create, transport, manage and deliver digital content around the world, on any platform, anytime.

ETC@USC is a nonprofit, member-funded entertainment technology think tank and research center, affiliated with the USC School of Cinematic Arts. It brings together senior executives, innovators, thought leaders and catalysts in a neutral setting to explore issues related to the creation, distribution and consumption of entertainment content. Verizon’s participation on the executive board will provide media and entertainment companies with opportunities to learn how Verizon’s media-focused solutions, network and technology expertise can help the industry transform its future.

“The goal of the ETC@USC is to bring industry and technology experts together to develop the solutions that will propel us through the next 20 years,” said Kenneth Williams, CEO and executive director of the ETC@USC. “Verizon’s broad set of technologies and deep industry experience will provide a unique voice on the executive board. We look forward to their active participation.”

Scott Spector, global head of Verizon’s media and entertainment vertical, added: “Verizon is committed to the media and entertainment industry, and our participation with ETC@USC will allow us to support and potentially drive innovation in the industry. There’s a vast range of opportunities to integrate technology and improve everything from digital content production through digital distribution, creating an optimal experience for the industry.”

Verizon Enterprise Solutions creates global connections that generate growth, drive business innovation and help shape tomorrow’s biggest ideas. With industry-specific solutions provided over Verizon’s secure mobility, cloud, strategic networking and advanced communications platforms, Verizon helps open new opportunities around the world for innovation, investment and business transformation. Visit www.verizonenterprise.com to learn more.

The Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California (ETC@USC) is a think tank and research center within the USC School of Cinematic Arts that brings together senior executives, innovators, thought leaders, and catalysts from the entertainment, consumer electronics, technology, and services industries along with the academic resources of the University of Southern California to explore and to act upon topics and issues related to the creation, distribution, and consumption of entertainment content. ETC@USC helps drive collaborative projects among its member companies and engages with next generation consumers to understand the impact of emerging technology on all aspects of the entertainment industry, especially technology development and implementation, the creative process, business models, and future trends. (www.etcenter.org)

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to consumer, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America’s most reliable wireless network, with more than 108 million retail connections nationwide. Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America’s most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers worldwide. A Dow 30 company with more than $127 billion in 2014 revenues, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of 177,300. For more information, visit www.verizon.com/news/.